Corporate establishment in China : A comparative study of establishment options available for an Aktiebolag when entering the Chinese market.

by Dunmark, Lenny

Abstract (Summary)

There are many Swedish companies active on the Chinese market, since China’s accession to the WTO the year 2001 China has gotten even more interesting. China’s WTO accession does not only make it easier for Swedish companies to be present in China, it also provides Chinese companies an increased opportunity to access the Swedish market. Currently Chinese companies active in Sweden only counts for a small share of the total amount of the foreign companies present in Sweden, while there are several Swedish companies present in China.The Chinese legislation for the various entities is extensive. Just as in Sweden, China applies a civil law system with a written constitution. While China is a communistic one-party state Sweden is democratic nation with several parties. The communistic legacy is reflected in the Chinese legislation. There are several types of entities that appeals to a foreign investor in the Chinese legislation while there in the Swedish legislation only exist one kind of entity that counts as a legal person with limited liability. In both nations there exists the possibility of establishing a Representative Office however it is not allowed to conduct any kind of profit making business. There is in neither state any severe obstacles from establishing a company, there is only a demand for residency within the EEA in the Swedish legislation. According to many Swedish companies present in China it seems that bureaucracy in China is the major difficulty, it is perceived as complicated and time-consumingFor foreign companies it is important to respect the culture in the foreign country. The Chinese culture is different from the western and there are some concepts that are valuable to be familiar with. Guanxi can be compared to having a powerful network which may perform miracle with the time-consuming Chinese bureaucracy and mianzi which is more than just having a good reputation. How the company is perceived is highly important in China.